Consultant, climate proofing local development gains in rural and urban areas

Background

Malawi’s high dependency on rain-fed, maize dominated agriculture, combined with poor urban planning in rural towns makes 85% of its populations highly vulnerable to climate change induced droughts, floods and post harvest grain losses. The government has embarked on two highly ambitious programmes: one on national agricultural input subsidy, to increase the use of inorganic fertilizers and maize production; the second on decentralized governance, making the District Councils and other local institutions the primary focus for delivery of developmental services to the rural populations. The Agricultural Extension reform of 2000 forms a third (and supporting) baseline programme. Implemented through the decentralized governance system, the District Extension service System is meant to increase the participation of the local communities in the formulation and implementation of a development vision. The effectiveness of these programmes is however being weakened by inadequate consideration of climate change induced risks to local development, particularly floods, droughts, pests and diseases affecting stored grains. The proposed LDCF project will use two components to facilitate the use of an integrated package of ecological, physical and policy measures to reduce climate change related risks and improve the effectiveness of the baseline initiatives in Mangochi and Machinga Districts, in the upper Shire Basin. Ecological and physical infrastructure measures for water management will be adopted to regulate baseflow and reduce risk of climate change driven floods while mitigating against droughts. In addition, climate safe post harvest management technologies and practices will reduce grain loss and increase food security. Replication and sustainability of these initiatives will be secured through mainstreaming climate change considerations and financing into local development programmes and a capacitated extension service.

Short programme description:

Malawi received Global Environmental Facility (GEF) approval to develop a full scale project document on climate proofing local development gains in the rural and peri-urban areas of Mangochi and Machinga under the Least Developed Country Fund (LDCF) for Climate Change. This LDCF project will aim at reducing risks related to climate change (in this case droughts and floods and crop failures) with emphasis on reducing vulnerability to climate change. The districts of Mangochi and Machinga which are in Upper Shire basin, are among the fourteen most vulnerable districts to drought and flooding – and are currently not benefiting from any large GEF or other development or climate change project. The proposed Project will be part of the National Climate Change Programme, and relate more specifically to climate proofing of local development activities in the identified Districts. The oversight of the Full Sized Programme (FSP) and the Project Preparation Grant falls under the National CCP.

The Project Preparation Grant (PPG) will finance the ground work and stakeholder consultations needed to produce information for the preparation of the Full Sized Project (FSP). The PPG will be used to gather baseline bio-physical and socio-economic information, which will be used to refine the baseline and additionality analysis and identify project initiatives. It will also be used to identify relevant project participants and confirm project implementation arrangements, co-finance, targets and indicators. Co-finance for the PPG development will be provided by UNDP and the Government. As much as is possible, all relevant partners will be involved in the PPG process; this will enable full cost-sharing and meaningful participation during project design.

The Environmental Affairs Department (GEF Operational Focal Point) and UNDP will engage a team of consultants to lead in the collection of most of the baseline information in conjunction with the District Councils of the pilot areas, which will support the collection of necessary baseline information on the ground. This will likely be the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, who oversees District Development activities through the District Councils. The identified partner will report to the National Climate Change oversight structures. All other project partners and co-financers will be involved in the project design phase through one-on-one consultations, working group meetings, and participating in project development workshops. This will ensure full ownership of the project, and build the foundation for sustaining the impacts after the GEF funding.

Team composition and leadership:

The project development team comprises of and is led by an international consultant, familiar with the GEF guidelines and templates, who is supported by a team of national consultants.
The overall coordination will be provided by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Management, supported by the existing Climate Change Steering and Technical Committees in conjunction with the UNDP Country Office.

Project development and coordination process:

• Overall responsibility for the project development process: Under the supervision of the National Climate Change Programme, EAD and UNDP, the national consultants will conduct baseline studies in the proposed project sites which will establish the gaps for the interventions and assess the capacity of the agencies involved in mainstreaming climate change: the international consultant will support the national consultants with methodologies for data collection and analysis, and collate all the information into a project document.
• Stakeholder participation: Although the consultants will lead in the project development process, the final content of the project needs to be approved by the key stakeholders. It is critical therefore to ensure that they are fully involved in the process. Products from the various baseline studies will be presented to relevant stakeholders (including communities where necessary). A plan of consultation will be included in the “project inception plan.
• Development of the project document, submission and approval: The proposed project will be part of the on-going and future National Climate Change Programme. The team will obtain the approval of the project documents by the Climate Change Technical and Steering Committees. Once this team approves the proposal, EAD, as the GEF Operational Focal Point, will submit the document to the UNDP-GEF Regional Service Centre (Pretoria) through the UNDP Country Office. EAD will incorporate any comments/feedback from UNDP and GEFSEC and finalize the project document for submission.
• Identifying co-finance and obtaining letters: GEF LD projects require co-finance of at least 3 (co-finance) :1 (GEF grant). Although parallel and ‘in-kind’ co-finance is accepted (particularly from the government), cash co-finance is preferred. The role of raising co-finance falls on the government (EAD), in collaboration with UNDP. If cash co-finance becomes too difficult, then parallel co-finance will be expected to the tune of 1:5 (and demonstration made of the efforts to raise cash co-finance).

Duties and responsibilities

Tasks:

• Description of development baseline activities and related sources of financing, in particular a summary of relevant development and disaster management projects, investment programmes and capacity building activities that focus on disaster risk reduction, water and soil management, post harvest management and local regulations on infrastructure and development in the two districts;
• Review and summary of the existing policy and regulatory framework relevant for community-based disaster risk reduction, with particular emphasis on current climate-related impacts and threats;
• Review, analysis and summary of current and past project activities by government, donors, NGOs and private sector institutions that are related to increasing community resilience (including an updated report on co-operation and co-financing arrangements drawing on UNDP support). Special emphasis will be placed on the baseline analysis, nationally and in the pilot districts – including the input subsidy programme, decentralization and other relevant programmes such as the national climate change programme, the World bank, Africa Development Bank , EU and USAID programmes on adaptation, etc.;
• A collation and synthesis of supporting reports (climate risk assessments, economic assessments of climate change impacts and cost/benefit studies of adaptation options) to justify the proposed project interventions and leverage financing for the proposed activities (this may include a research gap analysis, pre-feasibility studies for demonstration measures, etc.)
• Specification of planned adaptation activities to be financed by the LDCF and their rationale (i.e. why and how are they supposed to reduce vulnerability and/or increase adaptive capacity beyond what is already being done);
• Definition of project goal, objective, outcomes, outputs and verifiable indicators;
• Definition of a Strategic Results Framework and a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system with quantifiable and verifiable impact indicators. These indicators, which will specifically address adaptation impacts, will be based on guidance by UNDP’s M&E framework for adaptation projects. The indicators will be connected to a monitoring and evaluation plan, which will set out how and by whom these indicators will be measured and which way verification data will be collected by the project.
• Definition of implementation and execution arrangements for the project with detailed roles, responsibilities and a timeline for project implementation;
• Definition of a Stakeholder involvement plan for the preparation and implementation phase of the project, with a clear focus on community involvement and participation;
• Definition of Project Management and Reporting arrangements.
• Confirmation of co-finance and endorsement letters from the government and letters confirming co-financing commitments.

Expected outputs:

• An inception report presented to the Technical Committee on climate change for endorsement 10 days from the start of the assignment.
• A full project document presented to TC for endorsement and accepted by the client, including baseline reports and letters of Co-financing confirmations as annexes 8 months after the start of the assignment.
• A final full Project Document approved by the GEFSEC

Timelines:

The following outlines the expected milestones and timelines for the various products:

• Inception Workshop organized by EAD and UNDP by November 2012
• Baseline Studies done and report produced by mid December 2012
• Findings from assessments and analysis by January 2013
• Consultation workshops and report done by end December 2012
• Draft Full Scale Programme (FSP) with inputs from international GEF expert –guidelines and templates by 5th February 2013
• Comments from UNDP RCU February 15th February 2013
• Final FSP by 7th March 2012 with inputs from the international GEF expert

The Consultancy will be for a total of 60 person-days a period of 7 months (October 2012 – April 2013), and will include 2 or 3 trips to Malawi (likely September, November-December, February 2013) at key stages of project development and in consultation with the national consultants team and stakeholders.

Competencies

• Is up to date of new developments, concepts and theories in the area of economic development, climate change risk and vulnerability assessment
• Possesses expert knowledge of advanced concepts in natural resources management, climate change, and economic development and a broad knowledge of related disciplines, as well as an in-depth knowledge of relevant organizational policies and procedures
• Extensive experience in policy analysis, legislative analysis and institutional capacity building
• Good understanding of the governance and traditional institutions
• Someone who can persuade, convince or influence others in order to have a specific impact or effect
• Good ICT skills
• Works with communities and a positive, constructive attitude
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills
• Results orientation

Required skills and experience

The international consultant will be the Team Leader and should have the following qualifications and experience:

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Masters or higher level) in a discipline relevant to Climate Change such as: Natural resources management, environment studies, development studies, forestry, geography, Environment Economics or other relevant studies etc.

Experience:

• Minimum of 7 years professional experience, with particular experience in designing and/or managing climate change adaptation and/or mitigation projects, particularly related to adaptation for Natural Resources based economies
• Experience in the functioning of the devolved governance systems (regional councils) and the challenges of institutional capacity development and coordination at the local levels
• Experience with GEF and UNDP an advantage